Outer-space hacking a top concern for NASA's cybersecurity chief

By Nafeesa Syeed, BLOOMBERG NEWS

April 13, 2017

WASHINGTON - NASA scientists glean valuable data about powerful space explosions and the energy of black holes from their Swift and Fermi satellites. The projects were supposed to last a few years. Instead, they've survived for more than a decade.

That's great for researchers but a challenge for Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz because of the projects' aging computer operating systems. As the space agency's chief information security officer, she has to secure the data sent to and from planet Earth against cyberattacks.

"It's a matter of time before someone hacks into something in space," Hanna-Ruiz, 44, said in an interview at her office in Washington.

Cybersecurity at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration extends from maintaining email systems at the agency's Washington headquarters to guarding U.S. networks in Russia, where Americans serve on crews working with the International Space Station.

The agency also has to protect huge amounts of in-house scientific data and the control systems at its 20 research centers, laboratories and other facilities in the U.S.

Among Hanna-Ruiz's concerns is hackers breaching communications between NASA and one of its 65 spacecraft transmitting research data.

The challenge, she said, is, "How do I harden these streams and communications flows?"

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Her nightmare is a direct cyberattack on a satellite, perhaps even allowing adversaries to commandeer the controls.

Hanna-Ruiz, a lawyer, started her stint at NASA in August. She had managed Microsoft Corp.'s consulting services and also served in cybersecurity roles at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House during the Obama administration.